Thousands of North Korean refugees are working as sex slaves in China under threat of being returned should Chinese authorities catch them, the US ambassador for fighting international slavery said yesterday.
After two days of talks with Chinese officials, John Miller, director of the US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, said many victims of the modern-day slave trade were women and girls forced into prostitution or marriage.
"Sometimes they're trafficked out of North Korea. North Korean officials are complicit," Miller told reporters. "If they are caught by the Chinese authorities, they are sent back to North Korea and punished."
China views North Korean refugees on its territory as illegal economic migrants who should be sent back.
But the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the US and other countries have pressed China to treat at least some of them as legitimate refugees who should not be repatriated.
Miller said there were no accurate statistics of the number of North Korean women forced into prostitution or marriage in China.
But he said charities and church groups working in the region estimate between 30 percent and half of the many thousands of North Koreans who cross into China every year are "trafficking victims," forced or tricked into slavery.
Chinese press reports on the cross-border trade have said North Korean women are sold to Chinese brokers for several hundred to a thousand dollars each.
The repatriated women can face prison sentences of five years or longer, or even execution. But most often they are held for several months in forced labor camps, London-based organization Anti-Slavery International said in a recent report.
"There are countless testimonies of beatings, torture, degrading treatment, and even forced abortions and infanticide from those who have escaped," the report said of these camps.
Most of the North Korean women caught in slave trafficking were forced into marriages with Chinese farmers, the report said.
China's growing population imbalance means many poor farmers cannot easily find brides. The women often face abuse and beatings but several interviewed said "their current situation is better than risking repatriation or starvation," the report said.
In related news, activists at a Seoul conference on human rights in the North repeated calls on China not to send North Korean defectors back home, where they can face harsh punishment.
They also pressed the US to accept refugees.
Michael Horowitz, senior adviser to the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said the US has to push China to change its stance on defectors by threatening sanctions.
"China must be forced to choose between supporting this regime and sending those refugees to death camps in violation of law and good relations with the US," Horowitz said.
Also see story:
US blasts North Korea on human rights
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about 1,900 as
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
The WHO ignored early COVID-19 warnings from Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on Friday, as part of justification for Washington withdrawing from the global health body. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that the US was pulling out of the UN agency, as it failed to fulfill its responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO “ignored early COVID warnings from Taiwan in 2019 by pretending Taiwan did not exist, O’Neill wrote on X on Friday, Taiwan time. “It ignored rigorous science and promoted lockdowns.” The US will “continue international coordination on infectious
RSS